Chapter 35 Memories of Grace
“I had always seen something different in you,” Grace said. “But one never knows what secrets lie behind someone’s smile.”
“Different how?” he had teased. “Odd? Eccentric?”
“No,” she laughed. “You are a cowboy.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “I am.”
“Nobody says ma’am like that,” she giggled. “I mean, when I read that article about you in the Statesmen, it all made sense.”
“Up until that point, I was just odd,” he answered, laughing. He remembered how he enjoyed flirting with her and teasing her. He had little trust in her during that first meeting. She was a teacher in the Psychology Department. The school was small enough that they had spoken before, but she had never shown any particular interest in him before. Her sudden, almost over-the-top, interest made him suspicious. Going with that first reaction would have saved him a lot of trouble, but at the time, a gorgeous, young, professional woman was coming onto him, and he allowed himself to be blinded by the sort of thoughts that young men have when they suddenly attract the attention of someone of her caliber.
Grace was beautiful. She had long, black hair that was silky smooth and shimmered in the light. Her face was sculpted with high cheek bones and a sharp chin, but the lines were smooth, and her nose was a tiny little button. Her eyes were large and dark; they revealed every thought and feeling that she had. She was of medium height, had rather large breasts which she had a tendency to show off with low cut blouses and shirts. Her legs were long, trim and shapely and they formed a perfect, round behind that every man on earth was attracted to. She could have been a model, had she not had an almost violent hatred of the exploitation of women through the modeling and entertainment industry.
Evan recalled the first time he had seen her nude body. The lines were all smooth and sensual and he had taken his time caressing her and exploring every curve of her body with sweet relish. From that time on he lost all logic about things. They had gotten married and continued on with their lives at the college. At first, the excitement of their marriage had occupied Evan’s days and nights, but after a time, when the newness had worn off, he began to feel the restless urges of the mountains and the freedom of sitting on the back of a horse.
“You feel like Buck?” she asked. “What are you talking about?” He had began the conversation in order to feel her out for moving back to the mountains.
“You’ve read The Call of the Wild, right?” he asked.
“Yes, when I was a child,” she said. “What does Buck... Oh, Buck was the dog.”
“Yes,” he replied. “There is something calling me back.”
“But you have such a great job here and you love your job,” she said. “We have great jobs here and we’re comfortable.”
“I understand your fear,” he said. He had learned a thing or two about psychology too. “It would be a huge change for you. I’m just putting it out there and letting you know how I am feeling. Just think about it.”
“I will think about it,” she said. She considered for a moment. “Couldn’t we just visit for a couple of weeks?”
“I don’t know if that would take care of it, but maybe that would be best for you,” he said. “Kind of ease you into it.”
She had visited the ranch with him before and she loved the beauty and even the freedom and wildness for a time, but living there seemed to be a little too much for her. “We’ll go for another visit this summer.”
“I’m not sure that is enough,” he said. “It is a deep calling, but we’ll try it. How about the entire summer? I could ride for the pool and we could live on my homestead and just get away from everything for a few months.”
“I had thought about teaching a survey course this summer,” she replied.
“Look, sweetheart,” he said, wrapping his arms around her from behind and kissing her softly on the neck. “You need a break just like I do. We don’t need the money and you don’t need the stress of preparing for a summer survey course. Let’s just take the summer off and go back to the ranch.”
“I guess we could do that,” she said. Her face started to brighten as she considered how much she could use a break in the coolness of the Rocky Mountains and the peace and freedom. She understood Evan’s need to be free and run wild too. It would probably do them both good. She considered some of the things that she told her students about stress management and realized that Evan had a pretty good handle on understanding exactly how to manage that stress. He always had. He was great about sucking it up and working even when he was feeling restless. He told her that it was a cowboy thing. You do what needs to be done whether you feel like it or not. “Okay, we’ll go out there for the summer.”
“Maybe that will be enough to get it out of my system,” he said. “Thanks, Babe, it means a lot to me. It will probably be good for you too.” The relief of knowing that he was soon going to be able to escape New York for a while was enough to relax him and they made love that evening as though it was the first time. It was passionate and intense and continued until dawn; something they hadn’t done since the first few months of their relationship.
They returned to the ranch in early June when the snow cleared up and the road to the homestead was passable. She drove the pickup loaded with their clothes and supplies, but his thoughts had already on getting his butt in a saddle, and he had driven the string of horses to the homestead. Wrangling horses was always one of his favorite things to do, even since he was a kid. He remembered the thrill of bringing the “saddle string” down from cow camp in the fall. While the others trailed behind for several hours, Evan took the mad dash off of the steep hill back down into the valley behind the herd of horses, which took a pretty rapid and steady pace in their eagerness to return to the ranch. Evan would sort the “saddle string” and have them in their home corral before the “beef” made it back down to the valley.